Last June, Cisco released an update to its annualVisual Networking Index (VNI), 2013 – 2018. The forecast projects a global annual run rate of 1.6 zettabytes IP traffic by 2018 (up from 614 exabytes of global IP traffic in 2013). A zettabyte certainly sounds like a big number (equivalent to 1 billion terabytes, external storage drives generally come in a terabyte denomination). But how can this forecast methodology be applied to an individual cable or a telecommunications provider’s footprint? Our updated Cable/Telco Service Provider Abstract Network (CT-SPAN) tool can help answer this question. CT-SPAN is developed using the latest VNI assumptions for fixed networks and enable you to quickly develop customized service provider scenarios to estimate the annual traffic forecasts and revenue. It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

1. Select your region and service provider type as well as some basic subscriber and network info.2. Provide some high-level application info.

The event itself attracted 17,000 visitors and 1,700 participated in the Congress, listening to over 100 speakers – both areas attracting more people than last year – this is indeed a growing show!

Cisco was well represented in panels and speaking sessions throughout the event, with Alon Bernstein´s talk on virtual CMTS’, Yves Padrines’ panel on Connected & Smart Homes – which was very well attended in spite of taking place on the last afternoon – we counted over 300 people! And of course my own involvement on a panel to discuss how Cloud is key to keeping service provider’s competitive against new players such as the Over-The-Top (OTT) providers.

One of the taller trends protruding from the cable infrastructure side of life these days, along with Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), is the fiber optimization and convergence strategy known as “Remote PHY.”

And if you’re into infrastructure trends, know that we expect the matter of Remote PHY to qualify as a genuine hot ticket at the upcoming ANGA show, in Cologne.

Why: Because as service providers with cable access assets roadmap the infrastructure portions of their strategies to provide Gigabit services (residential and enterprise), mobile backhaul, and headend virtualization, they’re finding it increasingly important to be able to use the same fiber(s) for multiple purposes.

In Sao Paulo, GVT TV needed a way to protect its satellite-delivered video content.

In New Delhi, direct broadcast satellite provider Tata Sky needed a way to outfit its customers to stream video to IP-connected screens.

In Mexico, Megacable — the first in the country to launch broadband Internet over cable, needed to build the back-end video acquisition and distribution for an IP-based on-demand service to tablets and connected devices.

And in Germany, Deutsche Telekom needed a better view into its CDN (content delivery network), and a way to bridge into its “Entertain To Go” package of TV Everywhere content.

It wouldn’t be an SCTE Cable-Tec Expo without a stellar lineup of technical papers and workshops – even better because each one happens twice, to alleviate trade show schedules.

This year’s program features seven papers and presentations by my engineering colleagues, and a breakfast. Food first: Please join us at 6:30A on Tuesday for a Light Reading breakfast session titled “Monetizing Wi-Fi,” featuring Jared Headley, Senior Director of SP Mobility for Cisco. Here’s a link for more info.

A deep-dive on DOCSIS 3.1 and “downstream convergence layers,” researched and written by John Chapman, SCTE Cable ‘Hall of Famer’, Cisco Fellow and CTO of its Cable Access Business Unit. It’s part of the Pre-conference DOCSIS 3.1 Symposium, which runs all day (10A-4:15P) on Monday, October 21. (In room 309, if you’re going.) John’s a DOCSIS pioneer, and always worth seeing, especially if you harbor any curiosity about how MAC-layer data will get onto the PHY layer – and lots of other 3.1 detail.

The amount of video distributed over IP is growing fast. John Horrobin focuses on this phenomenon in a session, titled “Implementing End-to-End IP Video Solutions,” drawing from lessons learned in field deployments to compare multicast to unicast and switched techniques. His paper and presentation, titled “Pioneering IP Video in Cable Networks,” also explores current events in the combining network, and how it will evolve in step with CCAP deployments. Gateways with 16 and 24 tuners, that can deliver signals to connected devices over Ethernet, MoCA and Wi-Fi, are also detailed. John’s on at 1:15-2:30 on Monday, 10/21, and again on Thursday from 2:30-3:45.

The decades-old old engineering challenge – how much to store, vs. how much to stream – is Read More »

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